to wonder how Schools are going to cope when cheques become obsolete soon?

[BalloonSlayer]

This last week I have almost used up my chequebook, on:

• swimming
• Christmas cards (designed by my child)
• school trip
• school photos
• pre-school fees

I have managed to save precious cheques and find cash for:

• raffle tickets
• school workshop that will enrich my DC's learning environment but will ONLY happen if every parent pays yadda yadda yadda

School doesn't suggest any method of payment other than cash or cheque. What is going to happen when cheques become obsolete because "no one uses them any more?"

Might schools stop asking for money? >

Checking your own personal bank account is a lot simpler than reconciling payments on a business/organisation account.

This topic came up a while ago. As a small business and a Guide leader I HATE HATE HATE cheques.

elphaba why is reconciling payments on a business account difficult? Surely you just check the night before with your register of children and tick off the ones you've received. Then remind the outstanding ones the next time you see them.

I find reconciling the cheques to children very difficult - surnames rarely match.

THEN I have to go to the bank that I don't work opposite normally dragging 2 small children with me.

It's all irrelevant really cheques will go and for some of us we will embrace it and others will not and will have to get a grip on their dongles eventually.

Schools do have other options open to them and some use them already.

Both my children's schools use ParentPay for lunch money and trips, clubs, etc.

Works a treat.

Oh god - I much prefer cheques coming into school - nowt quite as fun as all the odd small coins coming out of the corners of the envelopes on dinner money day!

Its not quite that simple. Some pay monthly, some pay termly and some order uniform. I enter payments up on our admin system as they come in, the paretns hand it in with the remittance advice. Paying by bank transfer they often forget to send the 2nd installmant and often I don't see the parents of older children, only the younger ones.

I don;t have online banking at the moment as the passwords/dongle are not working.

Online payments.
Cash.

for charities/dual signature accounts - what we've doen is set up online banking with a £1k daily limit, but the finance policy was amended to say that all items over £500 needed another trustee's (emailed) agreement, and anything over £500 needed full board approval. Plus every trustee has read-only access to the account so thay can check what's going in and out (in practice none of them actually do).
Not all banks will allow this (I'm in the process of changing one club from NatWest to HSBC for just this reason). But it is a way round dual signatures on cheques.

Don't get me started on matching up payments to surnames though - even with paypal it's horrendous as women quite often have a PP account in a different surname, or someone uses their partner or friends account to pay. Standing Orders (and I imagine direct Debits) are also a nightmare as the references on the statements IME match the person in about 10% of cases, even where you request they put a reference number.

I may have ranted about this a bit before . Sorry.

I've not used a cheque in years!!

I go up to the school and pay cash and get a receipt there and then. ( especially for the school trip that cost £650!!)

I haven't used a cheque in years either.

That parentpay looks good - does anyone know how much it costs the schools to run (before I go marching off to both schools with the link )

As far as I know (work in retail) cheques are not becoming obsolete, it is the cheque guarantee scheme that is going.

So you can still have a chequebook etc, but the retailer won't have any guarantee that you have the cash.

Therefore the school, windowcleaner, other people that know where you live will still accept them, but they won't take the risk in shops.

Since dd has started school I've started using my cheque book again! I pay lunches weekly and send cash for that, but for photos, trips etc I send a cheque in.

I would much rather do it all online actually. I never had change for book club on a Thursday, always rifling through the bottom of my handbag or coat pockets.

Actually DS3's nursery photos we could order and pay for online - was very impressed

Cheque books will be with us until 2018, and by then everyone will be used to on-line banking etc.

Putting aside all the opinion stuff about independent schools - one big advantage is that most of the stuff get puts on the bill at the end of term.

At primary I suggested I just give the school 150 quid a term and they could make the necessary deductions but evidently it would have increased their admin.

Whatever you do the raffle tickets are still a PITA though.

yes school stuff does get put on the bill - which I pay each term by cheque.

parentpay is genius. Not only can I make sure all music lessons/ school trips are paid for I can see exactly what my child has bought for snack at school. When I see he had a mini pizza mid morning, I understand why my lovingly crafted humous and organic carrot sticks are untouched at the bottom of his bag.

Cash
Credit/Debit Card
Bank Transfer

I'm on the fence, as my account has no cheque book, but I am generally able to make payments by bank transfer and accept the same way or using PayPal (which despite its costs, means someone can use a credit or debit card as a one-off payment, or linked to their PP account, or fund their PP account from a bank account, so I don't know [or care] how the money was paid, so long as it reaches me, and their bank details are completely shielded from me via the PayPal security so no hacker of my websites can get such details (ie I have no liability if their bank details ever go AWOL).

I can see the pros and cons (quite a few on either side) concerning use of cheques / reconciliation for any organisation of lots of payments. (Un)fortunately I don't have lots of payments coming in at the moment...

"is for your organisation to open a Paypal account." - slight downside is loss of the commission 3+% (I know business customers may be charged per cheque, but depends on amounts and 3.x% + a fixed fee adds up for each PayPal transaction.

Nagoo - it isn't the cheque guarantee that will be scrapped but the Payment Clearing body proposes scrapping all cheques by 2018.

There was a new Lib Dem MP David Ward put forward a bill "to ensure that cheque facilities continue to be available for customers" (under the 10 minute rule).

Over 120 MPs indicated reservation about the scrapping of cheques. Total number of cheques written per day is currently 4 Million, and even in 2018 there are expectations of 2 Million per day still being used, according to the Payments Council (which proposes the abolition).

The MP pointed out that by setting a date the Payments Council accelerates the decline and the action smacks of a cartel deciding for their own reasons to remove a facility. Already some of the members don't handle cheques so are happy to go with this decision.

Also pointing out that the Federation of Small Businesses is against abolishing cheques along with various other bodies, on behalf of elderly people, etc.

The Bill proposes that an independent body considers any plans to abolish cheques and that it be answerable to Parliament.

Anyway, the bill was carried on its first reading with no dissent. Second reading 17.06.2011. Write to your MP to support the Bill.

My daughters school has an on-line payment system for parents from Pebble - School Fund Manager. I can pay for uniforms, trips, photos etc from the comfort of my own home. It's much easier than trusting a child with cash. If your school doesn't have it I would highly recommend it. The school are now looking into payments on-line for school dinners. I hope this happens so that I can pay for dinners as well.

Paypal - I am not allowed to send cheques to school and have to use paypal

In answer to maryjane71 comment about cheques being around until 2018. I understand that for schools payments by cheque will be starting to be phased out from as early as 2014.

Until schools have a more secure alternative means of accepting payments from parents than cash (i.e. ParentPay, bank transfers, etc.) cheques will be my most preferred option of sending money in to the school. My DD has lost cash in the past after taking them in to school and schools don't always give a receipt either when they take cash.